FRIENDSHIP FLIGHT: Tony Circles the Globe : Tony Completes Dreaded Arctic Leg of Trip

By JIM CARLTON

June 17, 1989 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

REYKJAVIK, Iceland —

Tony Aliengena, bone weary after a nine-hour, 1,450-mile transoceanic flight that began in snow flurries in northern Canada and took him through four time zones, safely landed his single-engine Cessna early today in this island capital in the northern Atlantic.

Tony, an 11-year-old from San Juan Capistrano who is trying to become the youngest aviator to fly around the world, crawled out of his cramped cockpit at 2 a.m. as a setting sun cast a pinkish glow over this seaport metropolis that is flanked by snow-capped peaks.

Looking very tired, the boy, whose parents normally send him to bed at 9:30 p.m., when asked how he felt, replied abruptly, “Good,” and marched straight to his hotel room on the 12th day after setting out from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport.

Tony, his family and an entourage from another chase plane all checked into a local hotel, where they are to rest today before attempting to complete the North Atlantic crossing Sunday with a 1,000-mile flight to Oslo.

A second chase plane, however, was forced to turn back to an earlier refueling stop in Greenland after a directional compass malfunctioned during the second leg to Reykjavik.

The twin-engine Cessna, piloted by Colorado businessman Pat Wiesner, returned to Sondrestrom, Greenland, where it had to be repaired and refueled before he could rejoin the group. Aboard his plane are three members of a Los Angeles film crew that is producing a documentary about Tony’s flight, as well as Soviet journalist Alexie Grinevich.

The all-day flight began Friday morning in Iqaluit, Canada, a remote Eskimo village near the Arctic Circle.

The entourage had been dreading the North Atlantic crossing ever since Tony departed Orange County June 5 on his Friendship Flight. It began ominously enough Friday, with snow flurries and blowing winds in Iqaluit, which is in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

At a weather briefing at the Iqaluit airport, the pilots were warned of an arctic storm system in their path on the way to the refueling spot in Sondrestrom, on Greenland’s western coast.

The storm system was showing the presence of freezing rain at higher flying altitudes, according to the weather forecast.

Conditions were so poor that Yves Landry, weather meteorologist at the airport in Iqaluit warned: “If it were me, I would stay home.”

In fact, no pilots had yet traversed the ocean route that day, they were told. But Gary Aliengena, Tony’s father and coordinator of the flight, opted to press on.

Shortly before takeoff, Tony and his entourage donned orange wet suits and tucked life preservers behind their seats.

Tony’s mother, who was riding in another chase plane piloted by Dr. Lance Allyn, explained the importance of the suits to her 10-year-old daughter, Alaina.

“If we go down in the water, the water is very cold,” said Susan Aliengena, as she helped her pony-tailed daughter into the suit. “And this will keep you from dying.”

After departing through gray storm clouds during light snow flurries over Iqaluit, the three planes emerged into clear blue skies and managed to stay above the storm system centered over the Davis Strait, between Canada’s arctic islands and Greenland.

At Sondrestrom--a U.S. Air Force Base--Tony descended into an eerie world of glacial peaks and aquamarine fjords. Also visible was the start of Greenland’s massive icecap, which runs to a maximum thickness of two miles.

Wiesner’s plane developed mechanical problems about one hour after leaving Sondrestrom on the 800-mile leg to Iceland, so he turned back.

But Tony and Allyn continued on, flying closely to maintain radio contact along the open expanse of ocean where they were out of touch of air-traffic control radar.

Tony crossed the east coast of Greenland about two hours after leaving Sondrestrom, soaring above a foreboding mass of jagged peaks that abutted a seemingly endless expanse of frozen ocean.

The ocean ice was breaking from the June thaw and was dotted with icebergs. Soon though, the ocean was concealed from view by a thick layer of low-lying clouds, which stretched to the Icelandic coast.

At one point, while flying through clear skies, Allyn glanced down at the ice and tapped the dashboard of his twin-engine Beechcraft King Air lovingly.

“I guess we can stay up here, I don’t know,” Allyn said.

While halfway over the ocean, Maxim Chikin, another Soviet journalist accompanying the flight, leaned his head into Allyn’s cockpit and asked nervously: “Where is land.”

Finally, after two long hours of cold ocean flight, the snowy cliffs of western Iceland emerged into view. Chikin rolled his eyes in relief.

FRIENDSHIP FLIGHT LOG

Tony Aliengena, an 11-year-old from San Juan Capistrano, is piloting a single-engine plane in hopes of becoming the youngest person to ever circumnavigate the globe.

Latest Leg

From: Iqaluit, Canada

To: Reykjavik, Iceland, with a fuel stop in Sondrestrom, Greenland

1,450

9 hours

Departure: 11 a.m. EDT

Arrival: 2 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time

Next Leg

From: Reykjavik, Iceland To: Oslo, Norway

1,000 miles

5 hours (est.)

Departure: uncertain